March 1st, 2018

a couple of weeks ago i flew into tokyo, super last minute to purchase a car that was for sale in the kanto region. after picking it up and staying the night at ueno takakuni-sans (MAJORFORCE AE86 member) in tochigi it was time to start the ~10ish hour drive down to osaka. beforehand however i managed to grab a couple of shots. this was my first time in japan in february and was enjoying the super crisp, cool weather to a tee.

after a brief stop-in to chiba to catch up with park and a kaido racer meeting in moriya i left around 11pm saturday with my mind set on driving all night to avoid any kind of traffic and being substantially colder – a lot easier on the car. without any tools or a jack i wanted to take it easy with plenty of breaks at parking areas double checking over the car every few hours.

just past 7am the sun rose as i made it to kariya parking area which is just off the shin-tomei / tomei and on the isewangan expressway just before you reach nagoya. one of the larger parking areas with more facilities and a gas stand. years ago i always dreamed of driving a semi-cool drift car long distance with my camera all through the night just taking photos along the way.

about an hour or so south of nagoya the extremely cold and clear sunrise quickly vanished and into a dark storm rolling off the mountains just as i was entering kameyama prefecture, just before nara. as i previously stated above this was my first time in japan so early on in the year and i’ve always wanted to experience snow in japan, especially with a car to get some shots.

after an hour or so wait drinking coffee and taking some photos it was somewhat clear enough to get back on the expressway and get the last few hours done.

the coldest it recorded on my iPhone throughout the night and early morning was -4. the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN staff jacket definitely served its purpose.

i ended up arriving in osaka city around 11am which meant the entire journey from chiba prefecture took me around 12 hours to the dot minus the few hour drive from tochigi-ken. i had some wheels in osaka which i had already planned on putting on this as soon as i got there and settled. fronts are volk TE37SL in 17×9.5 +12 and the rears volk 57GTC 18×9.5 +12.

in-between other work i managed to go out for a few drives around the bay area with the boys.

after probably 1500-2000kms of driving highways, low roads and a little grip session in the mountains the car seems pretty faultless so far. i will never get sick of driving around japan especially at night – everything comes to life and the country itself just glows.

excluding purchasing this car the previous PS13 managed to get stripped in a very short few hours thanks to jamie. a bunch of parts have now been offloaded and sold which i thank each and one of you for. i also attended a few soukoukais at meihan sportsland and suzuka motorland as you probably saw if you follow me on instagram and a large kaido racer meeting in tokyo.

i’m unsure what i will do with this car at this stage as i’m still wanting to make another NA machine. all in all worked out to be a busy fulfilled 10 days. spontaneous decisions will always be fun and exciting. have fun along the way. 水準向上 casey xxx